XXIX] LITERARY WORK, ETC., 1871-1886 105 



home with vigour and directness, and the little book is well 

 calculated to assist in the formation of sound views upon the 

 urgent question of which it treats." The Beacon (Boston, 

 U.S.A.) termed it "a very important little book," and gave 

 it a wholly favourable review ; but the notice that pleased 

 me most was that in Knowledge^ then edited by Richard 

 Proctor, a man of originality and genius. He declared that 

 my book was remarkable as being the application of scientific 

 method to a complex problem of political economy, which, of 

 course, rendered it impossible for the official representatives 

 of that science to accept its conclusions. The book, however, 

 had very little sale, and after a few years the publishers sent 

 me about a hundred copies, which remained an incumbrance 

 to their shelves, and which I gave away. It is, therefore, at 

 present, one of the rarest of my books. In the same year 

 I wrote my first small contribution to the literature of 

 anti-vaccination, entitled Forty-five Years of Registra- 

 tion Statistics, proving Vaccination to be both Useless and 

 Dangerous;" but this subject will be referred to in a future 

 chapter. 



Towards the close of the year I received an invitation 

 from the Lowell Institute of Boston, U.S.A., to deliver a 

 course of lectures in the autumn and winter of 1886. After 

 some consideration I accepted this, and began their prepara- 

 tion, taking for my subject those portions of the theory of 

 evolution with which I was most familiar. At this time I had 

 made the acquaintance of the Rev. J. G. Wood, the well-known 

 writer of many popular works on natural history. He had 

 been twice on lecturing tours to America, and gave me some 

 useful information, besides recommending an agent he had 

 employed, and who had arranged lectures for him at various 

 schools and colleges. I had already lectured in many English 

 towns on the permanence of the great oceans, on oceanic and 

 continental islands, and on various problems of geographical 

 distribution. To these subjects I now added one on "The 

 Darwinian Theory," illustrated by a set of original diagrams 

 of variation. I also wrote three lectures on the " Colours of 

 Animals (and Plants)," dwelling especially on protective 



